I can’t think of too many politicians I would regard as heroic figures, even ones that are on my side on the gun issue. In addition, many of the politicians who are on my side on the gun issue are decidedly not on many others. Just thinking here in Pennsylvania, I’ve always appreciated Rep. Daryl Metcalfe’s tenacity on the issue of Pennsylvanian’s Second Amendment rights, but I disagree with him pretty strongly on just about every other social issue of the day, and have always thought him a demagogue on a number of those issues.

Politicians aren’t our heroes. They are instruments that the interests of citizens are represented through. No more, no less. Todd is certainly not a hero of mine, as I had never even heard of the guy until this incident, and I certainly hope he’s appropriately punished for his transgression. But our opponents will continue to try to make us wear his shame as if it were our own. As if we were the ones who were caught in an aggravated DUI with a pistol strapped between the seat cushions. That is part and parcel for how they operate, and likely how they justify their intrusion into our personal choices.

Well, you sure kick the Mayors Against Gun Owners around every time one of them gets indicted or arrested. Well, maybe not every time — I’ll admit you could be missing a few — but it’s more than one a month.

My issue is not so much that I don’t expect our opponents to make hay of this. They’d be fools not to. My issue is more that they are attributing feelings and positions to us that I don’t think many of us hold… by describing him as someone we revere. I don’t think there are too many politicians very many of us would say we revere.

I’m no more willing to accept responsibility for this guy as a fellow gun owner than I am as a fellow driver, and I don’t see why anyone should expect that I should. I am careful and responsible with my weapons, and as I am careful and responsible when I drive. The fact that other people are sometimes idiots with both guns and cars just proves that there are idiots, and nothing more.

Adding to what mobo said, the news media around Chattanooga has been playing up the “Father of the Guns-in-Bars Bill” angle, while at the same time offering no evidence that Rep Todd actually had his permitted weapon in a bar.